After 11 days of consecutive gains gold remained steady below its record high on Tuesday.

Experts believe gold appeal as a safe haven will remain as there is no short-term prospects for euro zone crisis solution while the White House was pursuing a fallback plan with Congress to raise the U.S. debt ceiling and avert a default that could plunge global financial markets into chaos.

Spot gold was little changed at $1,602.41 an ounce by 0325 GMT, off the record high of $1,607.01 reached on Monday.

U.S. gold GCcv1 was almost steady at $1,603.20.

"If we do see some progress in the debt ceiling talks, it could encourage profit-taking by short-term investors," said Ong Yi Ling, an analyst at Phillip Futures.

For the longer term gold's outlook remained bright, targeting $1,650 to $1,700 by the end of the year, Ong added.

Holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust , the world's biggestgold-backed exchange-traded fund, gained 1.1 percent to 1,249.352 tonnes by July 17, highest in six months.

Precious metals prices 0325 GMT

Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume
Spot Gold 1602.41 -0.99 -0.06 12.89
Spot Silver 40.24 -0.27 -0.67 30.40
Spot Platinum 1771.50 1.52 +0.09 0.23
Spot Palladium 792.97 0.40 +0.05 -0.82
TOCOM Gold 4077.00 46.00 +1.14 9.33 48511
TOCOM Platinum 4552.00 55.00 +1.22 -3.07 5402
TOCOM Silver 101.70 4.60 +4.74 25.56 1429
TOCOM Palladium 2034.00 54.00 +2.73 -3.00 177
COMEX GOLD AUG1 1603.20 0.80 +0.05 12.79 6063
COMEX SILVER SEP1 40.28 -0.07 -0.17 30.17 1908
Euro/dollar 1.4110
Dollar/Yen 79.05

TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months